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Talk: 20000202-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-shining_the_light_of_death_on_life_part_11-43033 Leandra Tejedor.json Start_time: 01:10:19 Display_question: It seems to me, also in the practice, that there are many other roots, to recognize death, such as simplicity. Keyword_search: death, aging, sickness, awareness, Christmas, simplicity, emptiness, wise reflection, Buddhist, Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, 7th Dalai Lama, wake up, sleepwalking, Buddha, awakened, movies, Clark Gable Question_content: Questioner: Apart from the aging and the sickness in the body, I understand that you become better if you practice of getting… Larry: Awareness. Questioner: Excuse me Larry: Of awareness. Attention. Questioner: Yeah. It seems to me also in the practice that there are many other roots to recognize death. Larry: Yes. Like what? Questioner: Well, emptiness, and simplicity. Larry: Can you be concrete? So, it isn't just… Questioner: Because it’s Christmas (inaudible) and the season. It's been over. I noticed that January has been very quiet, very simple, unlike anything that I've experienced for a long time. And I thought you could like that. And no material, but everything is, a lot simpler. And I thought it would be okay to just plain go out, like this. I just mean I'm really looking that simply. But in my imagination, awareness of being so simple, as to just be my body. Larry: Okay, what I would call that, would be skillful. It would be wise reflection. That's in the Buddhist language, it would be considered wise reflection. If you want to, there's a book. It's not the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. It's a book on Tibetan views of death. We have it in our library. Our full library is in storage. But when we go back. And in it, there's a very extraordinary, beautiful poem, by the 7th Dalai Lama. And in it, each set of four lines, is a reflection, on different things that my mind is taught…turns to the thoughts of death. A ripe fruit hanging from a tree just about to fall off. I see it. I see my mind my heart turns to the thoughts, of my own death. And so, the teachings are wherever you look, really. And there are lots of people walking around, not learning that the way you did. And so now the question is, what you do with it. And you have found it helpful, it sounds like. But you're not, strictly speaking, dying right now. Questioner: Ironically, I feel more alive than ever. But life is being built, so it will tear down. Larry: Well, but you see, like shining the light of death on life. That's the phrase we've been using, if you want to elaborate on that. It would be kind of, on the art of being fully alive. And so, whatever helps you wake up to this incredible life that we are all living, which doesn't seem to be sometimes. So, we are… it's so obstinately familiar and, we do so many things over, and over, and over, again, that we become… we're sleepwalking. And of course, that's the whole thrust of the practice. A Buddha is someone who's awakened. And it isn't just now and then, another dimension opened up. And it's possible for us, to some degree, or another. That's why we sit for hours on end and walk and listen to talks like this. And there are more fun things to do. Right? That's a skillful use of it, certainly. Break_line: Anything can help you. In my own case, an old movie, 1930s, of seeing the film one night, and just for whatever, I was in a place where I could learn from it. I'm not always there. Everyone in the in the film was dead. And I knew it. I knew all of them. And they were in the prime of life. Clark Gable, and I’ve forgotten who else, and everyone was lusty, and vigorous, and the music, and I knew who the director was, and I knew who wrote, and I knew that everyone there was dead. The entire… probably people selling popcorn. I don't know. If they did sell popcorn, then I think it's more recent. But anyway, and I looked at it. The modern world has certain teaching tools, which it's sort of amazing. They're right in front of you. You're watching everyone here, and they're prancing around like they're going to be there forever. And you're looking at them, dead. Dead. Orchestra dead. And for some reason that particular time, it was like an arrow went right in here. It doesn't always happen. I just was very receptive that night. End_time: 01:15:07